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Physicists Do What Einstein Thought Impossible
An anonymous reader writes "Einstein worked on Brownian motion (the movement of small particles in a fluid as they collide with the fluid's molecules) in 1905, but said it would be 'impossible' to determine the speed and direction of a single particle during this dance. Now researchers have gone and done it, by suspending a dust-sized glass sphere in air (which slowed down its dance moves, since it had fewer collisions with spaced-out air molecules than it would have had with water molecules). The researchers held the sphere in place with 'laser chopsticks,' and then watched how the glass bead bounced around to determine its direction and speed (abstract)."
. . . wouldn't Fox News have reported on it? I thought Murdoch had an exclusive on 'impossible' news.
They will ban this experiment in Texas.
They were justified to some extent.
No. They were not justified to any extent. If you adhere to the scientific method you present counter claims. You might deny publication in a referred journal. Howver you do not suppress what a scientist has to say. You don't torture them or threaten them with torture if they don't recant. You don't deny them medical treatment. You don't imprison them. You don't ruin them.
The geocentric theory based on epicycles had predictive power too: it could be used to predict eclipses to a reasonable accuracy.
No one suggests that it should have been supressed until the appropriate evidence emerged.
The heliocentric model explained the retrograde motion of planets, but also made predictions about parallax of heavenly bodies, which was not observed (since the measurements available at the time were not sensitive enough).
Again what's your point? How does this justify banning books describing the theory that eventually proved to be correct?
Bot theories had merit, and given the information available at the time, neither was perfect. That doesn't excuse the church from supressing the ideas, but it's naive to argue along the lines of "Galileo was right and the church was wrong". Galileo just didn't play the politics right.
That's your straw man, not my argument. My argument is that Galileo's work should not have been suppressed, nor should he have been subjected to the vile treatment he received. You've conceded at least the first point while you continue to try to justify the second.
I was talking about the scientific method if you bother to read what I actually wrote instead of launching into a tirade about how your pet relgious body did no wrong.
It amazes me that people CONTINUE to this day to try to justify medieval practices like torture, the banning of scientific books etc.
These posts express my own personal views, not those of my employer